All the useful natural components
of amla, Indian gooseberry, Emblica officinalisGaertn., with therapeutic value, can be
easily extracted in water after dispensing the berries in hot
water. Ameliorating the extract,
with the sugar made it a good medium for the growth of
Saccharomyces
cerevisiae and fermenting the sugar into
ethanol to make wine. The wine was
found similar to any other wine in
terms of its composition, taste and aroma. The conditions for
achieving the highest alcohol
content and improving the sensory qualities have been standardized
by evaluating the effect of
addition of various exogenous nutrients, environmental conditions,
fermentation technology and by
maturing the wine. The supplementation of ammonium sulphate,
potassium dihydrogen phosphate,
proline and biotin to the hot water extract of amla proved to be
best nutritional factors for
highest alcohol production (12%) during the fermentation of the amla
based medium with a new strain of S. cerevisiae
in a batch fermentation. The
alcohol content
was further improved to 16.1% in a
fed batch fermentation involving the repeated feeding of sugar
for 2 cycles after an interval of
3 days each in a batch where the initial TSS was maintained at 20%
and the feeding was done when the
original TSS fell to 10% at each of two stages. Further, the
storage of wine in oak wood barrel
for a month improved its quality and led to the reduction in
undesirable components such as
n-propanol, n-butanol, iso-butanol, isoamyl alcohols and an
increase
in desirable components including ethyl acetate, phenolics, etc.